Still not a Twitter fan!
thumb|px|rightSo earlier in the semester we did an assignment that required us to get a Twitter account. Some people were jumping for joy. I, however, was not amused. In my mind I do not see a point to Twitter. Why does someone need to know what I am doing every second of every day? Why do I need to publicize what I am doing right now? Or what I had for lunch? I mean seriously, it seems like a complete waste of space. I guess I can say I am REALLY not a fan of Twitter. I feel the micro-blogs type of statuses on Twitter is what most people get annoyed with on Facebook. Twitter seems to be a collaboration of needy people who are incessantly interested in the useless things other people are doing as well as fulfilling their desire to have people know what they are doing at every moment due to some insecurity complex. When people update their Facebook page saying "going to bed", good for you. No one really cares that you are going to bed. We do not need to know your every movement. I feel this is what Twitter is all about. For some, like me, it is hard to adjust as well. I do not feel the need to update my followers on my ever movement of the day. The two articles below look at the dangers of Twitter. The first discusses how the influx of social networking sites among America's youth is creating a desensitized generation. It is really interesting considering the recent teen suicides that have been publicized. The second is a humorous link to 5 things that have gone horrible wrong when using Twitter. Enjoy! Twitter desensitizing American youth Twitter Gone Bad Nonetheless, Twitter is a website, owned and operated by Twitter Inc., which offers a social networking and microblogging service, enabling its users to send and read other users' messages called tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the user's profile page. Tweets are publicly visible by default, however senders can restrict message delivery to their friends list. Users may subscribe to other users' tweets—this is known as following and subscribers are known as followers. Many people find Twitter very useful. Twitter can be useful because it is a freedom of speech. You get to say whatever you choose on all sorts of topics. The catch is you only have 140 characters to say what you want. Many people do find twitter very useful, however one must be careful to not go overboard. For example, it can be useful for businesses to get out their latest news to masses in a quick, immediate fashion. People who follow this business would find this update to be useful. To expand upon this, let's say Joe goes to Cafe Bird and finds out that they are no longer serving his favorite drink. Then in response to this he can tweet his reactions to Cafe Bird. Cafe Bird can then follow these tweets and respond to Joe. Twitter serves as a new means of customer service for Cafe Bird in this situation. Twitter can also be used for companies to hear what they are doing right according to their customers and keep it up. However, it can be very easy to become addicted to having to know what people are doing every second of every day. Unchecked, one can find that using Twitter can almost border on stalking as some find the need to check for information on particular individuals every few minutes. It is open information provided by the person who tweeted it, but truly, how much is too much? Twitter can be useful in a link sharing capacity. What Twitter users must watch out for is OVERsharing. Tens of tweets a day can cause information overload. Therefore, users may skip over tweets, especially ones that are confusing to read. Be careful of link dumping on Twitter I agree I don't truely understand the point of twitter becuase I don't care what everyone is doing throughout the day. I feel that it is primarily made for celebrities since people actually care what they are doing and where they are all the time. Even though tiwtter is used by many celebrities, it was created as another communication tool for everyone who uses the internet. It may seem tiwtter was made for celebrities just because many of them use it to connect with their fans on a esier level. There just doesnt seem to be a point to posting your every move throughout the day for everyone in the world to see. I created a twitter for an assignment and refuse to use it now that the assignment is over. I will never understand the logistics behind telling everyone personal stuff about where you are. I feel like it is a site meant for people to just creep on and it makes it easy for stalkers to find people that they are looking for. Twitter is a way for people to easily stay connected. For example, my best friend moved to New York and I don't always have time to check my Facebook and keep up with everything she is doing. I can have all her Twitter updates (including pictures) sent directly to my phone so we always stay in touch. If you find this annoying, you don't have to have the updates sent to your phone, however. There really is a convenience option for everyone on Twitter! If you do not like to post what you are doing on twitter you don't have to. I know many people that do not follow any of their friends or celebrities for that matter. For my father, he does not ever post on twitter but he follows several news sites such as MSNBC and CNN, he also follows things he enjoys such as ESPN. He, like many people, use twitter to feel relevant to society and stay updated on current situations when he would not otherwise find the time to do so. Recently, most have used Twitter as an exceptional tool to create a buzz about certain topics, people, and events; however, some Twitter as a tool to spread news from the courtroom! Although it may seem unconstitutional, judges have decided not to ban the newest form of media outburst. Many see this as a breach of personal rights, but there are arguments to counter that as well. Removing the right to free speech is a great example of how taking away tweeting in the courtroom could be a problem. While it is still new, it seems to be sticking around and it does not look like any tweets will be banned from the courtroom any time soon. Twitter can be a great way for businesses, especially people in sales to get information quickly. For example, I know many traders use the bloomberg twitter to watch the market in order to make educated trades. However, I agree that people do not use it the right way. Twitter has become too personal, especially when you have people talking about what they ate for lunch or making silly tweets such as that. Nevertheless, I feel as though all social networking sites have gotten to the point where they no longer are used as they were intended. Facebook was originally a way for college studnets (remember it was limited to those enrolled in college. You needed a .edu email address) to share their culture and experience with one another. Now it has become a breeding ground for immature high schoolers complaining about useless drama. Twitter I feel has gone in the same direction. It has escalated into people sharing infromation that is way to personal, and in my opinion, worthless information. No one needs to hear that you are going to the bathroom over the internet. No one needs to know you are going to bed. Twitter should be used as a way to share USEFULL information with people following you. Things like, "I graduated college today!" and "Finally bought my new car today!" are the kind of information people might be interested in hearing about, not "I'm going to the bathroom them bed time" I agree with the fact that it is not necessary for people to know my every move throughout the day. Granted, yes I understand you can simply just say what your thinking or what your doing as opposed to where your at but it still seems unecessary if you ask me. Then again I may just be biased because I do not have a Twitter account (which everybody else seems to have) but I just don't feel as though I would really want to look at what people are talking about all day long. I mean really, if you ask me its text messaging on the internet. But who am I to judge I guess I may have to get my own Twitter account to see if I'm right or wrong. Even though I feel like I'd be right. I think twitter has some advantages but more disadvantages. It is very useful for small businesses who want to promote sales or update their customers about what is going on. Also, as to what was mentioned earlier, it is fascinating for some to follow their favorite celebrities and keep up with what they are working on. However, for the average person I think twitter can create many problems. People tweeting about their day to day actions obviously only takes a few seconds but it can all add up. People spend so much time staring at a screen already and tweeting what you are doing every hour just adds to that. ---- As an avid reader of great newspapers from around the world, I am continually reminded of the power in the printed (digital or analog) word coupled with great oratory. Twitter is the death of great oratory in technology. Through its existence as a way to communicate in 140 characters or less, damn the torpedoes and full steam ahead, Twitter serves as a reminder that, in our current state as a generation and a society, we don't have the desire, the drive, or the ability in the cases, to make a coherent statement last more than a few dozen words. I believe that the average youth needs to be able to give more literary meaning to their thoughts than "I <3 my bestiez Lauzy and BeckySue, they ROK!" Leave me to my happiness in facebook and the New York Times. Ugh. One can also look at this issue from a different standpoint. Twitter is just another social media that is taking children away from face to face communication. There was a study that was recently done that had shocking results. It reported that while 50 years ago the social radius for a child of about 12 would be a mile, that has now shrank to be about the size of one's house! And this is something that parents and adults are simply not paying heed to. The youth in America are socially stunted due to the excessive amounts of technology at their fingertips. http://www.svmoms.com/2009/01/twitter-is-bad.html http://www.marcgunther.com/2009/04/22/why-twitter-is-bad-for-journalism/ Speaking of great newspapers NY Times Twitter News Not only are American Youth revolting against Twitter, many common stars are joining the Anti-Twitter Club. Anti-Twitter , This page is a blog that shows the many that are against the simple micro-blogging site of Twitter. Category:Twitter is just an update of Facebook statuses, how origional. It may be unliked because it is an avid update of statuses. If people do not have a cell phone with the internet; can Twitter even be deemed effective? Communication these days has been taken to a new level; and not for the good.